I have lived in rural Ohio most of my sixty-eight years of life, living in communities such as Bryan, Farmer, Ney, Deshler, Mt. Blanchard, Mt. Perry, New Lexington, Junction City, Alvordton, Glenford, and Newark. I spent most of my life in northwest and southeast Ohio. I spent almost three decades pastoring poor people; people on government assistance, Medicaid, and food stamps. Most of these people had at least one adult family member who held a full-time job. I spent eleven years pastoring a Baptist church in Perry County, a notoriously poor county. One year, unemployment was over twenty percent. In its heyday, the church ran over 200 in attendance. Total offerings for that year? $40,000. Most years, offerings were closer to $20,000. While I grew up poor, this church gave me an intimate look at how the poor lived their day-to-day lives trying to make it to tomorrow.
WKBN reported recently that the Republican Governor Mike DeWine is trying to ban poor people on food stamps (actually SNAP) from drinking an ice-cold Coke (or Pepsi) on a hot summer day:
Ohio has formed a group to see which beverages should be banned from purchase using SNAP benefits.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced Tuesday who the members of the group looking into the issue will be:
Matt Damschroder, Director, Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) (or designee)
Maureen Corcoran, Director, Ohio Department of Medicaid (or designee)
Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, Director, Ohio Department of Health (or designee)
Rachel Cahill, Visiting Fellow, The Center for Community Solutions
Douglas Lumpkin, former director of ODJFS
Kimberly McConville, Executive Director, Ohio Beverage Association
Lora Miller, Director of Governmental Affairs & Public Relations, Ohio Council of Retail Merchants
Kristin Mullins, President/CEO, Ohio Grocers Association
Dr. Jonathan Thackeray, Dayton Children’s Hospital
Lexi Tindall, Clinical Manager for the Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition, Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Pat Tiberi, President & CEO, Ohio Business Roundtable
The group will make recommendations that would prevent Ohio SNAP benefits from being used to purchase certain beverages that how minimal nutritional value and contribute to medical conditions such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and hypertension.
Any ban would require approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Did you notice who Governor DeWine didn’t put on the group? Poor people. Shouldn’t the people this policy will affect have a say on the matter? Or is this more about self-righteous, arrogant Republicans thinking they have a right to tell the poor what they should eat and drink? They are just looking out for poor people, right?
Of all the things Governor DeWine and Republican legislators could focus on, they choose to focus on “pop.” (Or “soda” for you who live in other places.) This obsession with controlling the behavior of the poor has been a common problem for years. Republicans see a poor person using food stamps and they notice what’s in their cart. OMG! They bought pop and candy. God forbid they reward themselves with sweets after a long week at work. God forbid poor children enjoy the same food and drink as people of means.
I wonder if we paid close attention to the grocery shopping carts of the middle class and the rich. Does anyone doubt that we will find pop, candy, and “junk food” in their carts? If this is really all about “health,” why not ban all sugary foods and drinks? Surely that’s best for rich folk, right? Imagine the outrage from the financially secure if they can’t drink a Coke or eat a Snickers?
On behalf of poor Ohioans, let me say this to Governor DeWine and Ohio Republicans: Go fuck yourself!
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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